Various Hdp monitors are available in the art. Such monitors are generally employed to sense and monitor various Hdp values, usually for purposes of diagnosing cardiovascular conditions of a patient. Hdp measurements performed, generally in conjunction with an electrocardiogram (ECG), might include measurements of stroke volume (SV), stroke index (SI) and cardiac output (CO). Such measurements are indicated for the diagnosis and therapy of patients suffering from cardiac conditions such as heart failure, hypertension, coronary artery disease, pericardial disease, obstructive lung and pleural disease and also renal insufficiency. So-called impedance cardiography (ICG), involving application of a fixed current (of about 400 microAmps at 40 kHz) to spaced apart electrodes is described in the literature for purposes of measuring actual patient current. This state of the art is essentially concerned with securing CO measurements and comparisons of the spaced electrode ICG procedure with well-known and regularly employed thermodilution (TD) procedures for measuring CO or calculating such by multiplying stroke volume (SV) with heart-rate (HR).
The state of the art as discussed above has been mentioned in view of this involving passage of current to a patient in the ICG procedure, which procedure, however, is concerned only with attempting to secure, as well as is possible, reliable measurements of CO values of patients. Also of some interest from a state of the art perspective, is mention of direct digital synthesis (DDS) for ensuring stable current sources, which technology may also, but not necessarily, be employed in a component of the hemodynamic monitoring system of the present invention. Further of possible interest from a state of the art perspective, is disclosure of statistical analyses by means of Band-Altman plots of differences between CO measurements provided by different measurement procedures. A Bland-Altman plot (Difference plot) is a method of data plotting used in analyzing the agreement between two different assays, popularized in medical statistics by J. Martin Bland and Douglas G. Altman.
The state of the art as summarized above is to be found in J. Fortin et al./Computers in Biology and Medicine 36 (2006) 1185-1203. This possible interest arises from the present invention involving statistical analyses and computations related to measurements of a variety of specified Hdp values.
Insofar as the present invention is essentially concerned with diagnosing a health condition of a patient, mention of the state of the art as represented by disclosure comprised in EP Application No. 08 734 777.9-1652 related to an electronic system for influencing cellular functions in a warm-blooded mammalian subject, where mention is made of diagnosis in the following terms: “The electronic system of the invention is therefore a valuable diagnostic tool for diagnosing the presence or absence and identities of types of tumor cell growths or cancers”. This disclosure, however, does not contemplate or suggest employing measured Hdp values as a means for diagnosis of either a type of cancer or indeed any other form of a health condition of a patient.
In terms of background of the present invention, extensive clinical trials performed with the aid of the electronic system described in above-mentioned EP Application No. 08 734 777.9-1652 led to further investigations related to effects of treatments performed. These further investigations included performing multiple measurements of various Hdp values in patients and determinations, in terms of the present invention, that such values differ dependently of the type of cancer. Such determinations provided basis for proposing a diagnostic procedure based on measured Hdp values for diagnosing a particular form of cancer harbored by a patient. These determinations furthermore suggested that practically any form of a poor health condition suffered by a patient, including such conditions as viral, parasitical or other pathogenic invasions, organ dysfunctions leading to undesirable components such as toxins being comprised in the blood of a patient, drug abuse, poisons, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, venom from a snake-bite and the like, may be diagnosed on the basis of certain identified measured Hdp values patient's diagnosis. Furthermore, since it has previously been determined that Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders described in EP 0 592 851 A2, may be successfully treated by application to a patient of amplitude modulation (AM) carrier signals modulated at predetermined AM frequencies, it is likely that such conditions may be similarly diagnosed on the basis of certain measured Hdp values. Reference is also made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,692 disclosing a lengthy listing of conditions which may be treated with the aid of precise bioactive frequencies. A frequency synthesizer is controlled to generate a specific precise frequency or a series thereof. A keyboard actuated by a user is employed to select such frequencies, which in turn leads to a circuit which gates the generated signal ON or OFF within determined well defined time intervals. Once again, however, influences on Hdp values or determinations thereof are not considered.
Diagnosis in terms of the present invention may be performed with the aid of certain measured and recorded Hdp parameter values measured, in a number of patients pre-diagnosed to be suffering from an identified poor health condition or being in a healthy condition, at determined times and for determined periods, as described in greater detail below.